


Let's Forget (Just For Tonight)

by GoldenTruth813



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Clubbing, Gen, Gen Fic, Glitter, Harry Potter Next Generation, Limbo, Next-Gen, Platonic Bedsharing, Sibling Bonding, mentions of divorce, tequila shots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-05-04 21:26:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14602050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenTruth813/pseuds/GoldenTruth813
Summary: James takes Albus clubbing and there are copious amounts of glitter, tequila shots and Albus somehow ends up doing limbo. Albus really hates James (except he really fucking doesn't).





	Let's Forget (Just For Tonight)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you AB for the beta!
> 
> Written for May's Rarepair Bingo using the fills - clubbing, glitter, "how many kinds of lube do you have?", "lets fuck off and see the world", hair pulling, "ill be the one to tuck you in at night", tequila shots, limbo and bed-sharing.

Albus sighed heavily and crossed his arms, disgusted when he realised his favourite hoodie was covered in glitter. Fucking  _ glitter.  _  He tried in vain to brush it off.

“Stop looking so fucking surly, Ally,” James yelled over the loud music, bumping their shoulders together. Albus frowned harder. James was shirtless and covered in so much glitter it looked like Tinkerbell had lost control of her bag of pixie dust and dumped it on his brother.

“I can’t believe you got me to come here.”

James laughed, throwing his arm around Albus’s shoulder and effectively saturating him in shimmering gold glitter. “I can’t believe you wore a fucking hoodie to the club.”

“Maybe we should go home,” Albus suggested, decidedly uncomfortable.

James shook his head, flecks of red glitter falling from his dark hair. Albus hated him a little bit for not looking ridiculous. Well, he  _ did  _ look ridiculous because it was glitter and everyone looked ridiculous covered in glitter. But deep down Albus knew that if anyone at the club looked  _ less  _ ridiculous than anyone else, it was James. Which honestly should’ve been impossible. James was shirtless, wearing a pair of jeans with so many holes they looked ready to fall apart, and every inch of his bare skin—of which there was a lot because James was fucking shameless—was covered in glitter.

“Maybe we should get more alcohol,” James challenged, one eyebrow raised and that all-too-familiar look on his face that said he already knew he was going to get his way.

Albus meant to protest, except alcohol definitely sounded like the best way to get through this night, which was exactly how he had somehow had enough tequila shots to make it seem like a good idea to enter a limbo competition with James.

Albus wasn’t even sure what was happening, honestly. He just knew everything seemed really funny, there was a lot of cheering, and he’d definitely lost because the fucking limbo bar was too close to the ground—which incidentally was where he was, flat on his back staring at the ceiling and laughing.

“Alright baby brother, I think it’s time to take you home,” James said, reaching his hand out. Albus took it gratefully, rising to stand and grabbing onto James’s forearm when the room began to spin. It was only then that he realised how fucking trollied he was.

“I don’t wanna go home! Let’s fuck off and see the world!” Albus yelled, throwing his hands out and stumbling when the dizziness overtook him.

“Settle down there, Ally.” James was laughing.

“Why the fuck aren’t you drunk?” Albus grumbled, groaning when the room spun as much as his stomach.

“Because some of us didn’t get into a shot competition and down nine shots of tequila in ten minutes,” James said seriously, wrapping his arm around Albus’s waist and guiding him out of the club. Albus’s feet felt heavy as he put one foot in from of the other, eyes focussed on his and James’s trainers.

“Why does everyone like you better?” Albus blurted out as they walked out the club door and made their way onto the pavement. 

He could feel James looking at him. James had this way of looking at people, the same way their mum did—as if they could both see right  _ inside  _ someone. It was as comforting as it was alarming, since it meant Albus could never hide anything from either one of them.

“They don’t, Albus. They really don’t.” James looked sad and Albus suddenly wished he wasn’t so fucking drunk because he wasn’t sure what that meant, but it made him want to hex someone. James never looked sad. “Come on, let’s get you home.”

Albus was about to protest that if James took him home this bevved their parents would kill them. Not that he was too young. He was seventeen, for fuck’s sake. It’s just, sometimes his mum and dad still treated him like he was seven. But then Albus felt the familiar, comforting wash of James’s magic as he was Side-Along Apparated straight to James’s flat, and he sighed with relief. Ah, good ole James. Sometimes he wasn’t completely horrible.

“Come on, dead weight. Move it,” James said, pulling Albus’s hair to get his attention.

“Fuck off, you absolute tosspot,” Albus grumbled but he followed James down the corridor to his bedroom all the same. 

“Here, put this on, you’re not sleeping in my bed in that,” James said, tossing a Holyhead Harpies shirt right at Albus’s face. Albus shrugged, fumbling with his jeans before kicking them off. The hoodie was far more difficult and Albus wondered if someone had spelled it on him as he tried to pull it off because it definitely didn’t seem normal to get your head stuck in your own hoodie, but then James was there, yanking it off his head. “Fucking useless,” he laughed, ruffling Albus’s hair playfully.

Albus stuck his tongue out at James petulantly, pulling the shirt over his head, grateful for something clean and not covered in glitter as he stumbled to James’s bed.

“There’s a Sobering Potion in the bedside drawer,” James yelled, his head stuck in the wardrobe as he rummaged around for something. 

Albus plopped down onto the edge of James’s bed and yanked the drawer open, then began to laugh hysterically. “How many kinds of lube do you have, you fucking rando?”

James pulled his head back out of the wardrobe, his cheeks pink. “Well, Teddy’s coming home tomorrow and—”

“No!” Albus yelled, covering his ears and humming as James walked across the room. “I don’t want to know what my brothers do in bed.”

James shook his head, reaching into the open drawer and pulling out a small vial that’d been mixed in with the many coloured jars of lube. “He isn’t my brother, you fucking weirdo. Drink this.” He shoved the vial towards Albus.

“You’re the fucking weirdo, you weirdo,” Albus said, grabbing the potion and downing it in one go before dropping his head onto the pillow. He knew the potion wasn’t going to work immediately, but he wished it would—the room was spinning and he felt pretty close to leaning over the bed and chundering. 

Albus closed his eyes, regretting his every life choice, when he felt the duvet being pulled up over him. “Are you tucking me in?” Albus asked incredulously, a weird sort of warmth flooding his chest. Not that he’d ever tell anyone, but there was something nice about knowing James would always take care of him.

“Just go to sleep, you utter fuckhead. Merlin, don’t you ever shut up,” James complained, and then Albus felt the bed dip as James climbed in from the other side and lay beside him.

Albus wasn’t sure how long he lay there, unable to sleep. Long enough that the potion took hold and he remembered the entire night with painful clarity. Long enough that James fell asleep, his heavy breathing somehow oddly comforting. Long enough that Albus remembered why they’d been out clubbing, remembered the utter heartbreak he’d felt as his parents confessed they were separating over dinner. 

James had promised to take him out, to make him forget. Albus hadn’t believed him, but James had. Albus had gone hours without once thinking of their parents.

He rolled over and looked at James, his mouth open as his soft snores filled the room and remnants of the glitter his  _ Scourgify  _ didn’t quite catch still dusting across his face. James had promised him nothing would change and Albus knew it was a lie. Everything was going to change. 

But maybe, just maybe, things would still be okay.

  
  
  



End file.
